By the time the first Avondhu attempt had sailed between the posts, Imokilly were already five points to the good at Church Road. By the time the second did, they were seven clear.
This was as straightforward as the scoreline suggests. Fifteen shots in the first half returned 13 white flags. Avondhu, with the aid of the breeze, had eight wides and two scores from play to show for their efforts in their Cork PSHC Divisions/Colleges section semi-final on Saturday.
In typical candystripe fashion, Denis Ring’s men were out of sight before Avondhu had even landed a punch. Another four unanswered scores on the restart left Imokilly 12 up with 25 minutes to play, and still 2-14 to be tacked on.
Avondhu did improve, though they couldn’t fare much worse. Solely for the unrelenting efforts of Stephen Condon and James Keating.
Those two and Brian Lombard got on the scoresheet to leave it 1-23 to 0-10 at the end of the third quarter, while Condon and Keating added two more to leave 14 points between the teams with 15 to play.
Mike Kelly – who was on fire in the second half – responded to Condon and Keating’s efforts with one of his six scores from play.
Avondhu had a couple of half chances at goal. Both from Condon. The first ended prematurely, Condon denied advantage just as he had broken through on goal, with referee Simon Stokes calling it back for the free.
He slipped through again 10 minutes later, this time denied smartly by Ciarán O’Brien, who blocked his effort.
Avondhu did eventually get that breakthrough, after 61 minutes. A clever one-two between Condon and Keating saw the latter rifle a beauty into the top corner. But that consolation was mercilessly wiped out, as Joe Stack set up substitute Oisín Fitzgerald for a second Imokilly major in the 64th minute.
Kelly and Jack Leahy had been scoring for fun up until additional time – leaving Imokilly 1-31 to 0-16 clear before Keating hit the net.
It was a woeful opening period for the north Cork side.
They couldn’t hold onto any of their restarts, and when they did, any attempts at picking out a forward up front were fruitless.
Their distribution was subpar, and they scrapped the use of Liam Cronin as a sweeper after 19 minutes. A substitution followed four minutes after.
By that stage Imokilly were 0-12 to 0-4 in front. They were eight ahead still at the break. When the first green flag came for the east Cork outfit, it was after 42 minutes, and was a gift from Avondhu.
Cronin had done well to win possession and he handpassed it short to goalkeeper Daniel O’Connell, but his stick pass was straight to Diarmuid Healy, who unleashed a low strike into the gaping net.
At that stage it was 1-21 to 0-9. All too easy for the reigning county champions.
J Leahy 0-9 (0-4 f), M Kelly 0-7 (0-1 65), D Healy 1-1, O Fitzgerald 1-0, B Lawton 0-3, S Hegarty, J Stack, W Leahy, C O’Callaghan, J Cronin 0-2 each, C Cahill, C Joyce
0-1 each.
S Condon 0-8 (0-3 f), C O’Brien 0-5 (0-3 f), J Keating 1-2, B Lombard, E Carey 0-1 each.
E Davis (St Catherine’s); J McCarthy (Dungourney), T Wilk (Cobh), C O’Brien (St Ita’s); C Joyce (Castlemartyr), M Russell (Aghada), J Cronin (Lisgoold); S Hegarty (Dungourney), C O’Callaghan (Dungourney); W Leahy (Aghada), D Healy (Lisgoold), B Lawton (Castlemartyr) (c); M Kelly (Castlemartyr), J Stack (Castlemartyr), J Leahy (Dungourney).
C Cahill (Cloyne) for W Leahy (46), M Hegarty (Lisgoold) for Lawton (49), A Sherlock (Cloyne) for McCarthy (56), O Fitzgerald (St Catherine’s) for J Leahy (57), J Griffin (Dungourney) for Cronin (58).
D O’Connell (Dromina); S Killeen (Liscarroll/Churchtown Gaels), J Keating (Kildorrery), L Carey (Kilworth); E Buckley (Ballyhooly), B Curtin (Kilshannig), D O’Reilly (Ballyhooly); J O’Sullivan (Ballygiblin), E Carey (Kilworth); J Murphy (Dromina), C O’Brien (Liscarroll/Churchtown Gaels), L Óg Hegarty (Kilworth); J Magnier (Killavullen), S Condon (Harbour Rovers), L Cronin (Killavullen) (c).
J Sheehan (Kilworth) for O’Reilly (23), O O’Callaghan (Liscarroll/Churchtown Gaels) for Hegarty, L Keating (Kildorrery) for Magnier (both HT), B Lombard (Ballyhooly) for Murphy (34).
S Stokes (Tullylease)
